my browser got blocked? suspicious activity?

[giantbucket]

eh, where's the explanation for why or how my IE browser (Win8.1) got blocked after browsing for a few minutes? happened this morning, and again this evening. my own home computer. java enabled.

annoying. unprofessional since it doesn't even really explain why. just blocks me and tells me to F off.

 

[rgd1101]

What is the exact error message?

 

[giantbucket]

took a cell phone pic this morning.

https://goo.gl/photos/LG7EMyXx4yUPtLqV6

got basically the same thing just now tonight (NY time zone)

edit - i'm using chrome now. had to reinstall chrome just to post this here. i use IE/Java 100% for my work-related stuff on this specific machine.

 

[rgd1101]

the from the distil networks not tomshardware.com directly.
Are you on vpn or something?

 

[giantbucket]

nope. i only use VPN on my laptop, and rarely. on this desktop, i don't use VPN. i checked IE11's settings and the slider is on medium to accept some cookies. my ADSL/Router isn't configured for any VPN anyways as far as i know (TD-W8980)

 

[rgd1101]

Reinstall chrome fixed it? sure you don't have malware issue?

 

[giantbucket]

running malwarebytes now... will run win's own defender in a bit. but both were run a few days ago anyways. will post results when both are done doing what they do!

 

[rgd1101]

try this too http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/

 

[Someone Somewhere]

We use Distil to stop/reduce content scrapers and spambots. They try to separate legit users from bots by, amongst other things, support for JavaScript, Cookies, and your user agent string.

I know that at launch they hadn't updated their systems to support Edge, but that was quickly changed. Would have thought they'd have caught IE11 by now.

I don't have a machine with Win10 to easily test, sorry.

In the meantime, you could try using a different browser. Sorry about this.

 

[giantbucket]

so malwarebytes, win defender, and adwcleaner all came up empty. well, adw found a tiny handful of things but oddly they were all tied to chrome, which i only installed because of that distil blocking thing.

chrome has been fine for 12 hours or so. IE11 got caught within 10mins. IE11 isn't even all that fresh and new!

oh, i'm on Win8.1 here. i ain't touching Win10 based on what i've heard about privacy. sticking with 7 and 8.1 here.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Oops. I clearly don't keep track of IE versions well enough...

You aren't using any add-ons that change your user agent string?

I don't really know what to say here, sorry.

 

[giantbucket]

not using anything as far as i know. i use YRefresher on that IE11 but nothing else (unless i've totally forgotten by now).

i've emailed Distil to get their take on it. yeah, i can use chrome, but i'm trying to keep this particular machine as sterile as possible since it's my forex trading machine first and foremost.